The Last Scene of Struggling
by astral-angel
Summary: Or was I wrong in assuming that you were smart enough to recognize a golden opportunity when it came up? Kate centric.


**Title: **The Last Scene of Struggling

**Author:** Mauzi

**Prompt: **Beginnings (#001)

**Characters: **Kate, Gibbs

**Spoilers: **1.01 – Yankee White

**Disclaimers: **NCIS and it's characters belong to Donald P. Bellasario, CBS, Paramount et. al. I own nothing.

**The Last Scene of Struggling **

"You pull that shit at NCIS, you're gone."

Silence. And then –

"Wait, was that a job offer?" She contemplates running after him, and half steps forward. Her steps are halted by the sight of him jumping into the convertible that pulls up. She laughs, and shakes her head.

Her career is over, and it hasn't quite sunk in yet. She leans against the side of her car and closes her eyes. She can still hear the insistent drone of Air Force One in the background, drowning out the numerous voices still chattering excitedly about what had occurred.

She wasn't sure what was so exciting about it. A man was dead. Albeit he'd been killed because he'd been trying to kill the president, but dead was dead in her book. She hadn't pulled the trigger, but she may as well have. She's killed before, but it's never been someone she'd known. She starts to think about what she would have done if he'd gotten past Gibbs, and her mind cuts of that train of thought immediately.

When she gets in the car to drive home, Tim's face floats in front of her eyes.

_He died, on the street … I bet it wasn't far from where the two of you kissed and said bye bye. _

Her stomach clenches tight at the indignity of it. Tim was dead, and Gibbs was a bastard. He'd shoved her into the bathroom _(god, what must everyone have thought?)_, and told her he thought that she had had something to do with Tim's death. She doesn't want to think about the way he hadn't defended himself against her half-hearted blows _(or about how carefully he'd held when she'd cried),_ so she exhales loudly and puts it out of her mind. Kate is very good at ignoring certain aspects of her thought patterns.

Her hand reaches for the dial on her radio, hitting the 'on' button absentmindedly. The music fills the silence in the car and successfully distracts her until she reaches her apartment building, where the doorman greets her. When she can't seem to smile at him _(and she always does, because he reminds her of her father in that overprotective way)_, Frank looks at her, concerned.

"Caitlin?" He's never called her Kate, no matter how many times she'd told him that it was Kate, not Caitlin. She's given up trying, and has resigned herself to the fact that there were now two people in the world who refused to call her by anything other than her proper name. Instead, she consoles herself with the thought that she likes Frank, and at least she can avoid her mother's phone calls.

"I'm alright," is all she says in reply. She's not really, though and maybe he can sense that she just wants to go curl up and die in the comfort of her apartment, because he nods and lets her through the doors without another word.

When she reaches her door, she stops. Her hand is poised over the handle, ready to turn. The last time she was in her apartment, Tim had listened to her rant about DiNozzo (_but not Gibbs, and thinking of why she hadn't told her lover about the bastard is also on her list of things not to do)_ and laughed. She closes her eyes and tenses _(suck it up Kate, he's dead, gone and you're not going to hear his voice when you go inside) _before she pushes the door open.

Her purse is the first thing to fall to the floor, closely followed by her jacket _(the only upside to not being in the Secret Service anymore is that she doesn't have to wear the tailored suits ever again)_. The red light on her answering machine is blinking, and she debates ignoring them for all of a second.

'You have five new messages' The electronic voice breaks the silence. She continues to move through the apartment, shedding clothes as she goes. She is too tired to bother being neat tonight and all she wants now is a bath.

'_Caitlin, really, what are you doing? You haven't returned any of my calls and your sister says you've been igno –' _

Her mother's voice is enough for her to turn back to the machine, quickly hitting delete.

'_Hey Kate… must have missed you at the office – heard you got hijacked by some weird CSI wannabe's. Man, was Bauer pissed. Let me know how it turned it out. See you tomorrow.' _She snorts at Jack's description of the NCIS team before sighing. So she hadn't exactly told anyone about her resignation. She skips it to the next message and smiles when her father's voice flows out at her.

'_Kate, sweetheart – do me a favour and call your mother back. She's taken to harassing me about it, and Jean is now wondering about exactly why my ex-wife is calling me daily. Love you.' _

She rolls her eyes, and mentally adds a half hour of torture to her plans for tomorrow. She deletes the message and listens to the next two half heartedly.

'_You quit! Kate? Pick up, we have some serious talking to do.' _Marcie's voice has a concerned note to it, and Kate winces. Maybe not telling anyone she was quitting hadn't been her best idea.

'_Bauer just told me something funny a couple of minutes ago Kate. Something about you quitting. He was joking, right? Kate?' _Jack's voice fills the silence again and she nods decisively. Yup, not telling anyone definitely hadn't been her best idea.

She walks back to her bathroom, filling the bathtub gratefully. The aroma from the bath salts she adds wafts up to her as she slides into the tub, sighing in pleasure as the steaming water hit her.

When she climbs out two hours later, her skin is red and wrinkly, and she has a scowl on her face. She has spent two hours analysing her reactions to a certain NCIS agent, and now regrets that she hadn't shot him in the first place. She smoothes on moisturiser automatically and collapses on her bed. Closing her eyes, she banishes the image of Gibbs from her mind and attempts to sleep.

The next morning, she is lying in bed, pondering the idea of not having to get up and get dressed for work. The ringing of her phone has her rolling her eyes and she gets ready for the attack from her mother. She picks up the phone, ready to deny everything.

"You're late." She shoots up in bed, mouth hanging open.

"Excuse me?" Her voice sounds hoarse compared to the smooth tones of his.

"You're late, on your first day Agent Todd." She is too stunned to speak. He has no problem in filling the silence. "Or was I wrong in assuming that you were smart enough to recognize a golden opportunity when it came up?"

She wonders if she has just been insulted or complimented. "Uh, no… I didn't think you were serious."

"I don't joke about things like that. Be here in an hour." The sudden dial tone lets her know that yes, he has just hung up on her. Her legs swing over the side of the bed and she sits there, mulling over what had just happened.

She was now working for NCIS _(apparently)_.

Logically, that meant that she would now have to work alongside DiNozzo.

And Gibbs, the man she was not attracted to _(definitely not attracted to)_ was now her boss.

Damn.

**fin**


End file.
